For me, it’s Jude the Obscure. That book is easily the worst book I have ever read, without a single redeeming quality, other than that it finally ends. I only finished it because Far from the Madding Crowd was so damn good.
But really, Jude is the gold standard of awful books, in my opinion.
What’s your so-awful-it-deserves-shelf-space book, if you have one?
Or am I just weird?
When I was 11 years old and naive, I loved the Maximum Ride novels. But even at that age I could tell somebody was phoning it in for those novels. I still fantasize about what a competent (or even just attentive) writer could have done with that story! It could have kicked ass